Valjean, Cosette and a sore knee
by BrandonMichelle
Summary: Valjean learns that he cant protect his little girl from everything. One shot, Novel verse based fic.


** Valjean, ****Cosette**** and a sore knee**

It had only been a few short weeks since Valjean had rescued Cosette from a life of abuse but he had already seen the most remarkable change in the little girl. She had quickly gone from being a terribly skinny frightened little creature, to a healthy looking little girl with the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen.

The best change in her was the change in her personality Valjean thought, during the first few days they spent together she was very quiet, very nervous and obviously very scared still, but Valjean had treated her so nicely and fatherly that she was soon smiling and laughing all the time, and she had the most wonderful laugh Valjean had ever heard.

Hearing her laugh was Valjeans favourite part so far, he had found to his great delight that Cosette was a very ticklish child and sometimes when he would put her on his knee during the evenings he would suddenly launch into an attack of tickles, Cosette loved it when he did that. It was an excellent moment of bonding for the both of them to laugh together.

They didn't just need laughter to feel close to each other though, At other times Valjean would have her on his knee and he would read to her, Cosette would lay her head on his shoulder and she would fall asleep listening to the comforting sound of his voice, Valjean thought it was wonderful to feel her breath on his neck when she had fallen asleep too.

Sometimes when she had drifted off Valjean would steal a few moments to simply look at her and hold her, it was quite possibly the happiest he had ever been in those moments. He would hold her in his arms and he would run his hands through her hair or stroke her beautiful little face with his fingers. One time she had not fully fallen asleep yet when he was lost in one of these moments, but she wasn't disturbed by this behaviour, she simply looked at him with her beautiful eyes and smiled and reached out to touch his face as well and she ran her tiny fingers through his soft beard. Valjean felt so much love at that moment that he could feel himself starting to well up but he managed to keep himself together, he wasn't ashamed of what he felt he just didn't want Cosette to feel like she was doing something wrong that's all, so he stayed strong.  
Both of them felt closer to each other than they ever had to anyone during that wonderful moment.

Valjean occasionally got so lost during those times that he forgot Cosette wasn't physically his, not that it mattered to him anyway that she wasn't, she was the only person he had felt anything for in such a long time, he wasn't going to let something as trivial as blood get in the way of what he felt for her.  
It didn't stop him thinking about other things though, sometimes he couldn't help wondering what his own children might have looked like when he looked at Cosette, or the life he might have had if he had been married and had a family. He would snap himself out of it quickly enough though, _the time for that has passed _he thought, Cosette was the only thing he needed now, and she was enough for him.

The one side effect from the changes in Cosette was that she had grown so fast she had trouble keeping up with herself, she would constantly find herself tripping over her own feet like she wasn't used to them at all, she was like a toddler learning how to walk for the first time. Valjean was always there to help her though, he could relate to her in some ways actually; when he was first released from prison it took him a long time to get used to the fact that his feet weren't chained to someone else's, he had to find his own way of walking again and he felt like Cosette was doing the same.

Cosette would most often trip up during the walks she and Valjean would take in the early evenings, the problem was that she liked to run around a lot. Valjean thought this was quite charming actually; he felt that after spending years cowering in fear from people that running around would be very freeing for her. It wasn't very ladylike obviously, but Valjean wanted her to have fun. She had just come from suffering years of abuse and Valjean wanted to let her have a childhood so if running around a lot made her happy then he wanted her to do it, sometimes Cosette would try to make Valjean run too but he would just tell her he was too old for running and he was happy enough just to watch her at play. If the worst thing to happen to Cosette now was an occasional fall then Valjean was happy with that too.

One evening they were on their way home from their walk, Cosette was being her usual playful self and running ahead of Valjean, he was always telling her not to go too far ahead because he was worried someone might snatch her if she left his sight for too long, he called out for her to come back and as she stopped suddenly to turn around she tripped over herself and fell hard to the ground.

This wasn't one of her usual little clumsy moments, this was a horrendous fall almost face first onto the pavement.

"Cosette!" Valjean cried out with fatherly concern.

Cosette was trying with difficulty to pick herself up off the ground but this time was harder than usual, normally when she had a slip or spill there was no more damage than a grazed hand, this time she had nearly knocked herself out. She managed to turn over and sit up and was already starting to cry by the time Valjean had raced over to help her.

"Cosette, are you alright?" Valjean asked, even though it was obvious when he had reached her that she wasn't, her bottom lip was split and bleeding, her chin had been badly scraped and she was wincing with pain as she was holding one of her knees.

Valjean had knelt down on the pavement to see the damage for himself.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked.

"My knee" Cosette said still half dazed.

"Let me see" Valjean said softly.

Cosette winced in pain again as he lifted her dress up to see where she was hurt, her knee was bleeding heavily already from a cut, he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it tightly around her knee to try and stop the bleeding for now, this made Cosette cry out again in pain.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts." He said looking into her tear-filled eyes.

Valjean knew she wouldn't be able to walk on that right away so he picked the little girl up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way home.

"Don't worry, you'll be alright sweetheart" he said gently to her as she rested her head against his chest.

When they had gotten back Valjean placed Cosette on the table in the middle of the room so he could tend to her injuries properly.

"Don't move". he told the girl gently.

Cosette nodded and watched her father tear up some pieces of cloth to make bandages with, he took the smaller pieces and soaked them in the basin of cold water that was at one end of the room, he returned to the girl and gave her one of the wet rags.

"Hold that against your lip, it'll stop it swelling up" he told her

Cosette nodded again and did as she was told, she was still slightly shaken from the whole ordeal, the cold rag did feel better against her face already though. Valjean then removed the bloody handkerchief from her knee which made her wince again and was about to clean the wound when he looked at her.

"This will hurt again I'm afraid", he told her, "try not to move though, I'll be gentle I promise" then he smiled at her to reassure her and Cosette felt a little better about the whole thing already.

He was right, as he cleaned up Cosettes knee she cried out again in pain, Valjean felt a little guilty about causing her pain but he had to do it to make her feel better so he persevered with the job, the bleeding had stopped by now and the wound didn't look as bad as he thought it was which came as a relief to him.

When he was done cleaning her up he wrapped the bandage around her knee tightly to make sure it would stay put and then he kissed it.

He looked Cosette in the eyes, which were still looking slightly afraid.

"All better now sweetheart", he said, "You're going to be fine." He smiled at her as he said the last part.

"I'm sorry" Cosette said sweetly

Valjean looked confused

"What are you sorry for?" he asked her

"I don't know" she replied, she wasn't really sure herself why she had said that, it just slipped out. "For being a nuisance I suppose."

Valjean looked sadly at the little girl for a moment, when she had lived with the Thenardiers she must have felt like she was always doing something wrong because she was always being punished by them, that type of thing must take a long time to grow out of he thought.

"You're not a nuisance" he told her truthfully, "you're a child, children fall over and hurt themselves sometimes that's all, you don't need to be sorry for anything, and you certainly don't ever need to apologise to me".

Cosette smiled at him and they shared one of their special moments where neither of them had to say anything to each other to know what the other was thinking.

Valjean then took the rag from off her face to look at her cut lip, it wasn't bleeding anymore but it still looked fairly swollen, _that's going to look terrible tomorrow, _he thought, but he tried not to show any concern in his face.

"How does you lip feel?" he asked

"It's alright I think, it still feels sore though" Cosette said softly. "I'm tired now" she then added.

"Alright then let's get you into bed" Valjean said, "You'll feel much better in the morning Cosette."

Valjean didn't want her walking on her bad knee right away so he carried her to her bed just like he had carried her home; he noticed her hands were a bit red and grazed from the fall as well so he helped her change into her little nightdress and then tucked her in for the night. It wasn't that late yet, but Valjean figured Cosette had been through enough excitement for one day and was too tired to do anything else now.

As Cosette laid her head on her pillow Valjean stroked her hair and face as he liked too and looked into her beautiful eyes again for a moment.

He felt guilty again for letting her get hurt, he felt like he had let himself down and also like he had let Cosette down, he was supposed to be the one to keep her safe after all, however he also felt proud as well, not proud that she was hurt, but proud at how strong Cosette was. Yes she had gotten hurt, yes she was in pain, but she was still there and still smiling and Valjean knew that if she ever got hurt again that he would be there for her and they would both be alright in the end because they had each other. He felt like maybe this was a good thing to happen because it showed them even more how much they loved and needed each other.

Valjean smiled again and leaned down to kiss Cosette on the forehead like he would do every night, and then he whispered to her, "Goodnight Cosette, I love you".

"I love you too daddy", she replied with a smile before closing her eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep.

**The End**


End file.
